“Wrestling mat” or “zone of mutual cooperation”? Contexts, concepts, and representations related to Svalbard in Russian media

The Russian and Norwegian presence on Svalbard, a Norwegian Arctic Archipelago with a unique legal status, is characterized by constrained functional cooperation and diplomatic tension. This study aims to clarify how Svalbard is perceived in Russian public discourse by analyzing a selection of articles from mainstream Russian federal media published between 2010 and 2025. Adopting a linguistic approach – a combination of Critical Discourse Analysis, Cognitive Linguistics and Corpus Linguistics – the study employs Market Basket Analysis to examine the textual data. The findings reveal that the analyzed media construct Svalbard simultaneously as a natural Arctic environment and as a geopolitically and economically significant territory. These representations are produced through a range of stable discourses, including tourism, scientific research, transport infrastructure, and law and regulation, as well as through dynamic, event-driven discourses, such as securitization, legal pressure, legal disputes, and diplomatic tensions. These dynamic discourses frequently represent the archipelago as a contested space and a site of tension, primarily in the context of Russo-Norwegian relations. Within both types of discourses, Russia is presented as a legitimate and authoritative actor on the archipelago.